Having a birthday means getting older. It also means gaining congratulations from friends, relatives, schoolmates or work. And the closest people means winning a cake, a “congratulations to you”, a hug. Maybe sweets (brigadeiros!). And gifts.
The victorious Italian Carlo Ancelotti, new coach of Brazil, was born on June 10, 1959. Thus, this Tuesday, will turn 66 years.
The people closest to him on a daily basis, a week ago, are the players and the staff of the Brazilian team. Will there be “congratulations” and a dumpling? After lunch would fit well, it would be nice.
And the gift?
This one, Ancelotti wants to receive from players at night at Corinthians stadium in Itaquera (East Zone of São Paulo), where Brazil faces Paraguay by the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
There would be nothing better to celebrate the birthday than to leave the field with a victory against the Paraguayans, who are ahead in the standings.
Visitors, after a bad start (a six-matched victory), ripped and ranked third in South American qualifiers with 24 points.
They are in the stupendous phase, with a unbeaten record of nine matches (five wins and four draws), including a triumph against Brazil in Asuncion (1-0, on September 10 of last year).
The Brazilian National Team, which has been in troubled moments since the fall in the 2022 World Cup, at Qatar, and Tite’s departure –ANCELOTTI is the fourth technician to run the team – is in fourth place with 22 points. In the nine most recent games, four wins, three draws and two losses.
To gift Ancelotti, athletes will need to play a lot more football, offensively, than the screened in the coach’s debut on Thursday (5).
On 0-0 in Guayaquil against Ecuador, the team finished only three times Gol (twice with Casemiro, one with Vinicius Junior). Even those who went towards the goal (two), defended by goalkeeper Valle, offered no much danger.
Thus, in the attack, Brazil repeated the deplorable performance of the previous match, still under the command of Dorival Júnior, against Argentina in Buenos Aires.
In this confrontation, in which the Argentines did not have Messi and yet they thrashed 4-1 – it could have been more, the superiority – the green and yellow team risked three times against the goal defended by Dibu Martínez, two with raphinha (a ball in the crossbar and a blocked kick) and the goal of Matheus Cunha.
These two, Raphinha and Matheus Cunha, can be protagonists against Paraguay and, perhaps, give Ancelotti some joys on the date that, waits him, will be festive.
The first, Barcelona star, returns the team after complying with yellow card suspension in Ecuador. The second, who had a great season in English Wolverhampton, tends to enter the team after Richarlison’s weak performance (not well, for some time, the former celebrated pigeon).
It will be the first time Ancelotti will be in action as a coach, in his career began 30 years ago at Italian Reggiana, on his birthday.
As a player (was a midfielder), on June 10, he once acted in Italy 1-1 against Host Germany at the 1988 Euro, and was in the 3-2 reserve on South Korea in the Mexico-1986 Cup.
Any result this Tuesday in Itaquera other than the victory of Brazil, preferably playing a convincing football, will make the Italian remember this anniversary of June 10, having received a gift, given by a Paraguayan horse, with bitterly bitter flavor.
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